Crossposted at The Hemp Report and Daily Kos.
This morning I got up to go to work like every weekday morning. I work an early AM shift, but I still check my email before I leave. This morning there was an email with this stunning subject line in my Vote Hemp and HIA Board in boxes “Fwd: White Plume home burned down today.”
Alex White Plume on his back steps
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation – Manderson, SD
AP Photo/Chet Brokaw
The email was from Tom Cook and he writes:
8:30 pm Chadron. Debra White Plume just called, & asked me to contact you with word their home burned up this morning, around 9am.
Still in her housecoat when discovering the blaze, she only had time to snatch her grandson, pipe, purse, and cellphone & get out the door. Everything burned. Total loss. All papers even computers. ‘It all happened in a half hour,’ she said.
Alex had left earlier for Gordon, & came back around noon to bemoan the debris. By nightfall the Fire Marshall had concluded it was an electrical fire.
My first though was to put up a diary here and on The Hemp Report and try and get donations to help out Alex and his family. But it had to wait so I would not be late to work. Now that I’m home I read that Alex and his family may have a place to stay temporarily at Tom Cook’s place in Nebraska. They still are in need of clothes and food. I am going to use my PayPal account at The Hemp Report to accept donations and send the proceeds to Tom Cook for Alex. Please click below to make a donation. The email address for PayPal donations is hempreport@mac.com:
I hope to be able to get enough donations to get them some Safeway and Target gift cards. If anyone has a late model Apple Macintosh that they would like to donate to the cause you can email me at hempreport@mac.com or through The Hemp Report.
If you would like to know more about Alex, please check out the Standing Silent Nation page at PBS.
I hope that this is well received by the community and you can, please make a donation.
Thanks,
Tom
